Angels And Demons (DVD)

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Angels and Demons is one of the most talked about movies releases in 2009, directed by the famous American actor and director Ron Howard. The plot of this movie is based on Dan Brown’s bestseller novel of the same title. The story revolves around the kidnap of the top four cardinals and how famous Harvard professor Robert Langdon attempts to save them and resolve the conspiracy behind this.


American born Ron Howard ...
...Later in 2009 he directed Angels and Demons another Dan Brown novel based on the same title character from the famous symbologist and brainy professor Robert Langdon. Dan Brown wrote Angels and Demons (2000) first then wrote The Da Vinci Code (2003).



Multi-talented and genius American born actor, director and producer Tom Hanks played the title character of this as “Robert Langdon”. He also played the same character in ... more

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Angels and Demons is one of the most talked about movies releases in 2009, directed by the famous American actor and director Ron Howard. The plot of this movie is based on Dan Brown’s bestseller novel of the same title. The story revolves around the kidnap of the top four cardinals and how famous Harvard professor Robert Langdon attempts to save them and resolve the conspiracy behind this.

American born Ron Howard is a well-known actor and acted in several movies and later directed some brilliant movies and won the Oscar for “A Beautiful Mind”. As a prominent and talented director Mr. Howard has covered many diverse subjects and themes in his movies and presented them on screen masterfully. He directed “The Da Vinci Code” in 2006, the first adaption from Dan Brown’s best seller novel under the same title. Later in 2009 he directed Angels and Demons another Dan Brown novel based on the same title character from the famous symbologist and brainy professor Robert Langdon. Dan Brown wrote Angels and Demons (2000) first then wrote The Da Vinci Code (2003).

Multi-talented and genius American born actor, director and producer Tom Hanks played the title character of this as “Robert Langdon”. He also played the same character in “The Da Vinci Code”.

LEAD CHARACTERS

1. Tom Hanks plays the character of Robert Langdon (A super talented Harvard professor and protagonist of the movie)
2. Ewan McGregor plays the role of Patrick Mckenna (Adopted son of late Pope, priest and handles papl court official matter.)
3. Ayelet Zurer plays the role of Vittoria Vetra (A scientist who works for CERN also known as European Organization for Nuclear Research)
4. Stellan Skarsgard plays the role of Commander Maximillian Richter (The chief of Swiss Guard who handles the security matters of Vatican Catholic Church)
5. A. Mueller-Stahl plays the role of Cardinal Strauss (An old and wise Cardinal who is in charge of conclave to select the new pope.)

PLOT OUTLINE

Father Silvano who is in-charge of a secret and very important experiment in CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) killed brutally in the experiment chamber. The killer also stole the highly explosive and dangerous experimental object. Dr. Vetra works under Father Silvano in this project; she finds out about the murder and then goes to Vatican City to recover the stolen object.

In the mean time, four top-priority cardinals (who are the most probable to be the next Pope) are being kidnapped and the Vatican Authority seeks help from the famous Harvard Professor, writer and symbologist Robert Langdon.

So the story tells us how Professor Langdon is able to solve the problem and identifies the killer. It also tells us about the internal politics about the pope election and the conspiracy behind it. This movie has an interesting and gripping story-line which is really enjoyable.

MY PERSONAL THOUGHT

Angels and Demons is a highly entertaining movie, there is no doubt about that. Tom Hanks teamed up with Ron Howard once again for the 2nd instalment of Dan Brown’s book-based movies. If you read the book beforehand you will realize Ron has changed the plot and the characters to make for a more enjoyable and faster paced movie. Though he keeps the basic theme untouched, and has altered the side characters and simply avoided a few sequences and references.

Oscar winning script-writer and producer Akiva Goldsman re-wrote and adapted the story from the book. He worked with Ron Howard before and they won the Oscar for the best Adapted Screenplay for “The Beautiful Mind”. This time Mr. Goldsman adapted the story in a much less controversial way and soft with Vatican City authorities. I personally think both Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman was really not interested to upset anyone and in the end they have changed the plot-line and background of characters so much so sometimes it feels really awkward. Some scenes and sequences do not match to each other as well.

Ron Howard spent a large amount of money on promoting the movie. He was successful despite the flawed storyline and weaker characterization, this movie was able to create a big hype and earned a handsome total in the first couple of weeks. We the general audience only went to the cinema hall, to see what all the ‘Fuss’ was about. Despite the harsh criticism by movie critics, this movie ranked number one in several countries for a couple of weeks and grossed around 468million and become a box office success.

CHARACTERS and MY ANALYSIS

The character of Professor Robert Langdon played by supremely talented actor Tom Hanks. Mr. Hanks does not require any formal introduction; he is a world-wide famous actor and has won several Oscars and other prestigious awards for his brilliant acting. But in my personal opinion, this time Tom Hanks did a decent job in his role. Robert Langdon is a Harvard professor and expert in symbols and ancient historical religious signs and their background. He is extremely interested to solve these religious puzzles and discover the conspiracies behind them.

This time, Tom Hanks seemed impatient and kind of jumpy in his character of professor Langdon. He acts kind of worried all the time and talks too much. It feels like we are all his students and he gives us lectures on everything. Whenever he is on the screen he starts talking and gives lectures and always manages to bore me properly. I do understand he goes to Vatican City to solve a problem and to catch the killer, but when you are running out of time, what is the point of giving out lectures to those police officers, priests and innocent audiences. I felt like I am in a history class and trust me it was not an interesting one. I feel like screaming and shouting out loud “Please Mr. Langdon stop talking and do your work”.

Tom Hanks also looks exhausted in his role, It looks like he really does not like to lecture but someone pointed a gun to his head to lecture, he is just following the orders. In one particular scene, where Professor Langdon goes to Vatican City archive to solve some symbols and diagrams he is informed by the guard that, oxygen is kept in lowest possible level to preserve all the historical archives. Despite of this apparent fact, professor Langdon lectures Dr. Vetra about every single symbol, and about their authors and consumes all the oxygen. Here Professor acts like total oxymoron. Jokes apart, these things really annoy me about this movie. When Professor Langdon knows that he has so little time to save those cardinals, is it entirely necessary to enlighten everyone about his historical knowledge and capability of understanding the signs. I just find his character boring and very irritating at times.

Scottish born Ewan McGregor is a prominent actor and singer; he plays the character of Camerlengo, a papal official named Patrick Mckenna. He is the adopted son of the late pope and handles the official matter of the church. After the death of Pope, he takes care of the official matter of the church and also tries to control the Vatican. As a matter of fact, I really liked his character. It is beautifully written and well presented on screen. Camerlengo Patrick tries to control the Vatican and gets in to clash with Swiss Guard’s head and also with respected and powerful Cardinal Strauss. Despite this Patrick manages to keep his head cool and gets his way out. He is very calm, patient and intelligent. He knows how to tackle different types of people. He is a smooth talker and has this amazing ability to improvise other people’s decision. Ewan Mcgregor played the role of Patrick Mckenna superbly with a touch of elegance. Flexible body movements, honest and spot on facial expression and flawless delivery of dialogs just make his character highly enjoyable and entertaining. In my personal opinion, this is the best and finest performance by Ewan Mcgregor to date.

~Things that Pleased Me~

1. Excellent cinematography and beautiful scenarios.
2. Superb characterization of Camerlengo Patrick Mckenna and brilliant acting by Ewan Mcgregor.
3. A great insight to the Vatican City and different famous churches and sculptures.

~Inconveniences~

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Ok, now this part is going to be longer, I am sorry for that. There are few things that annoyed me a lot. As I mentioned before, long speeches from Professor Langdon were really boring and unnecessary.

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Odd and strange characterization of the old and wise cardinal Strauss also displeased me to some extent. He is a responsible and wise man and in charge of conclave to elect the new pope. Despite knowing the fact that there is a dangerous bomb in the city, still he goes with the conclave meeting. I really don’t understand the point of it, the main concern should be to save all the fathers, priest and cardinals who come from all over the world to join the conclave and to elect a new pope.

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Also Swiss Guard Chief Richter brought professor Langdon to solve the puzzles and to catch the killer. But Richter does not trust Professor Langdon at all. He denies to help him and stays inside the church waiting for the bomb to explode. This is really odd because as a security in chief, Richter’s primary concern is to save lives.

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Some murder scenes are really disturbing and gory. So it is really not suitable younger generation.

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This movie is 138 minutes long, and it feels really tiresome and boring in the second half. Especially, when you can predict what is going to happen still you have to listen to the highly knowledgeable and super talkative Professor Langdon’s history lessons.

VIEWERS RECEPTION

Despite a huge financial success, this movie received mixed receptions from both general audience and movie critics. Currently this movie has a 6.8/10 rating in IMDB voted by almost 32 thousand viewers.

DVD RELEASE AND AVAILABILITY

This movie first premiered in Tokyo, Japan on the 7th May 2009. Later it was released in UK 14th May2009. The DVD of this movie is stated to be released on 14th of September 2009. You can pre-order the DVD from Amazon and it will cost you only £12 with free delivery.

FINAL THOUGHT AND RECOMMENDATION

Despite all these flaws and weaker characterizations, it is an enjoyable movie with a gripping and suspenseful storyline breath-taking cinematography. I enjoyed watching this movie - recommended.

Thanks very much for reading my review.

©Gladiator007

This is a movie only review and also posted on Helium and Dooyoo under same username.
 

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